"We're fucked. Plain and simple people. F-U-C-K-E-D."
"Goddamn Seth! What the hell happened to Noah, did you decide
to let a rhino in there?!"
"No rhino could possibly do something like that." Grace
pointed to the neatly folded pile of clothing, the message written in
blood, and Noah's disdended face. "Zach, how smart was that thing you
and Gordy came across?"
Still mortified yet almost hypnotised by the macabre murder
scene, Zach took almost a full six seconds before coming to and
responding. "Oh, uhh.." A burnt out cigarette was drooping from
Zach's mouth. "It, uh, din't seem too smart. That huge bitch was
more of an animal than anythin'. Like all it wanted was ta get food, to
eat."
Eyes set and focused on the bloody message scrawled on the
ceiling, Seth finished, "A natural instinct to survive. Something
that has no relevance whatsoever concerning this."
Wiping away a little dribble of bile from her mouth with the
shaking back of her hand, Elizabeth piped in. "Something knows what's
going on here. That up there," She directed everyone's attention to
the bloody ceiling. "Is a message, telling us that we've made a
mistake. How I'm taking this, I see that we've accused the wrong man
of something he didn't do."
Em quickly protested. "Wait up now, what if this is Umbrella
just fucking with us?! Lissen, Noah just might have been the traitor,
but who in the Hell killed him? Umbrella coulda done that to their own
guy just to-"
"Build up paranoia. Increase suspicion. Put all of us at each
other's throats." Lyle interjected, the familiar sense of scholarly
wisdom present in his speaking. "I know what you're getting at Em, and
it's quite possible that you could be right. Same goes for you
Elizabeth. These are two very, very logical and sensible explanations.
Em, one thing, do you think anybody is left here in this facility
that's actually alive? Who could be around, who could be here to kill
off Noah and freak us out like this?"
Lyle was answered only with silence as Em turned away. "Yea
Caps, I guess you're right. Lissen, I'm sorry I messed up like that,
it's just this whole thing is just-"
"It's not your fault Em, don't worry. It's none of our faults
guys. This is a very traumatic experience and considering any
alternatives, the lot of us has held up pretty well. What we need to
do is get out of here," proclaimed Elizabeth's calm, comforting
voice. A chorus of agreement answered her suggestion.
--------------------
"Fuck, goddamn, why am I so friggin' stupid.." Zach screamed at
himself as he sprinted through the empty halls. "...got separated,
how could I have done that..stupid stupid shit..." The assuredly tired
soldiers had opted to leave the Umbrella facility and back to their
S.T.A.R.S. headquarters. Meanwhile, Zach had somewhat dawdled,
checking Gordy's charred corpse, or skeleton rather, considering the
severity of the burns, taking his tags with him. Upon grabbing the
tags and placing them in his vest pocket, he had run out to find only
an empty hallway, the homeward bound soldiers had lost him. "And of
course I had to go and panic..stupid stupid me." Discovering that he
had been accidentaly left behind, Zach began sprinting from hall to
hall, which now had left him lost and confused. This lab was far
bigger than Zach had previously imagined.
-click- -click- -click-
Zach's running came to an immediate halt upon hearing the
echoing clicks from down the hall. The silver door at the end of the
hallway was wide open, and Zach saw something, something that looked
like someone's leg. The person was off to the side, obstructed by the
frame of the door. Unholstering his Beretta, Zach slowly prowled over
towards the open door, none of his footsteps making even the slightest
noise. Upon making it through the door, Zach discovered that the leg
did indeed belong to someone, an Umbrella scientest to be precise. An
Umbrella scientist whose entire upper torso was ridden of skin, baring
red fleshy muscle and tissue. A line of dots punctured through his
exposed throat and he reeked of blood, death, and piss. There was a
gaping hole in his chest, and as Zach looked further down the hall, he
saw a left ribcage laying in a puddle of scarlet. "Ate his damn
heart. Holy shit." Not too far from the ribcage was an older
gentleman who had no head above the lower jawbone. What remained of
his head was an almost V-shaped splatter of blood and brain that layed
on the wall which he leaned against. At the end of this hall of death
stood a scrawny shrimp of a man, no, a boy. Zach guessed he was no
older than fourteen. The boy had no body fat on him whatsoever. His
grey, almost green-blue skin was tightly stuck to his bones. He
was all to similar to the famine victims, usually from third world
countries, who were often seen in National Geographic magazines. His
hairless head, or skull even, gleamed in the light from the hallways
overhead lights, greenish-brown saliva oozed from his thin lipless
mouth. His blue owl-like eyes were focused on Zach's gun and his
slender, elegant fingers were twitching. The stick-man's fingers were
tipped with six to eight inch claws, but not claws in the sense of a
bear's claws, but more similar to a greatly elongated syringe. All ten
fingers were coated with red. Zach was startled as the blue eyed boy
ran, no, dashed towards him. Zach's eyes shut as he squeezed the
trigger, surprised to hear the bullet ricochet off of the metal door
rather than embed itself in the boy's frail chest. His eyes opened and
the boy was gone, as if he had vanished into thin air. A chill ran
up his spine, triggering goosebumps to invade his arms as a wet, raspy
moan hissed almost right next to his ear. He screamed, a hoarse, tired
cry as he fell to the ground. A firey, blistering pain shot through
his body even before he hit the ground, a pain from his foot. Famine
had slashed at the hell of Zach's boot, easily severing the fragile
Achilles Tendon. His now bloodstained hands grabbed at his stinging
foot as he clenched his teeth, hearing them crack as his jaw bit down.
Through tear-filled eyes, Zach could see a blurry image of the boy
standing over him, as Pestilence had stood over Gordy. Awaiting his
death, Zach saw Famine's needle fingers approach his wet, teary
eyeballs. He felt another pain, but only a brief one, a piercing pain
in his eyes. The pain was numbed as the syringe fingers shot through
Zach's brain, sending him into the dark vortex where Gordy was now
reciding with all of the others, all of the dead men and women.
--------------------
"ZACH!"
"ZAAACH!!!"
"ZAAACHARY!!"
"ZACH, C'MON WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Elizabeth and Grace screamed and hollared for the lost Zach as
they ventured through the halls. The two had agreed to hunt for Zach
while the remaining three, Lyle, Em, and Seth, waited for them in the
Conference Room. Upon arriving in the Conference Room, the five had
found a map, presumably left for them, on the large beautiful table.
It was a map of the entire facility and one specific hallway was marked
with a large red X. Elizabeth and Grace had taken the map with them
as an aid in their current errand of finding Zach. A brutal, pain-
filled scream ripped through the air as the women approached the "X
Hallway" on the map. "God, I think it came from the hall..."
Grace silently bobbed her head, acknowledging Elizabeth. She
drew her pistol and slowly made for the door with Elizabeth close
behind. Grace threw open the door and raised her pistol, seconds
seemingly becoming long, rigorous hours. There was an open door at
the end of the bloodstained hallway. Two corpses resided there, one
skinned, the other headless while in the corner, a stick-thin boy with
grey, deathly skin plunged needle-tipped fingers into their comrade
Zach's eyes. He spasmed on the ground, his leg kicking into the air,
squirting blood from his heel onto the floor before returning. Grace
fired, the round hitting the blue eyed boy in its frail shoulder.
Greenish-brown blood oozed from the bullet wound and from its
slit of a mouth. He hissed at Grace before seemingly vanishing, more
like blurring away. Grace could hear the quick pitter-patter of little
feet as he disappeared.
"Come out here you little bastard." Grace stepped further into
the hall but suddenly stopped not long after passing Warren Fox's
body. Right when she stopped, a mist of red hit Elizabeth in the face,
spraying from her cut arteries. A solemn, serious look of fear and
determination remained on Grace's face as her head rolled off of her
shoulders and collided with the floor, adding even more blood to the
already bloodied floor. Her body was not far behind, hitting the
ground with a naseating THUD. Blood from the draining arteries
continued to spill, steadily feeding the growing crimson puddle. The
puddle reached out and touched Grace's head, staining her cheek and
ear. Elizabeth unslung her automatic rifle from around her shoulder
and began to scream.
"COME OUT HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!"
Elizabeth heard the recurring pitter patter of fleeting feet
along with another sound, almost like someone tapping a pencil against
another pencil. Claws tapping against each other. The taps continued
as she scanned the room for the life stealing Famine.
-click- -click- -click- -click- -click-